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Mariners a one-hit wonder with rare win

Mariners a one-hit wonder with rare win

7/20/13: Michael Saunders discusses his two-run, tie-breaking double and how the Mariners were able to beat the Astros on just that one hit

By Greg Johns
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MLB.com |

HOUSTON -- The Mariners went where few Major League teams have gone when they beat the Astros, 4-2, on Saturday night despite managing just one hit.

Dating back to 1900, it was just the fourth game in history when a team scored four or more runs on one or no hits. All three previous games involved the White Sox, the last one coming in 1990 when Chicago scored four runs while getting no-hit. The other two were in 1909 and 1914.

Prior to Saturday's game, the last time a team scored four runs on just one hit, without the benefit of an error, was April 30, 1914 when the White Sox lost, 5-4, to the Tigers.

The Mariners have now won three games in the last 25 seasons in which they've had one or no hits, tied with the White Sox for the most such wins in baseball.

The Astros' Erik Bedard became just the 10th pitcher since 1900 to lose a game in which he pitched at least six innings and didn't allow a hit.

Mariners manager Eric Wedge said he understood why Astros skipper Bo Porter took Bedard out after the veteran lefty said afterward that he didn't want to stay in the game any longer after reaching 109 pitches without a hit in 6 1/3 innings.

"Bo went out there and gave him every opportunity to stay in the game," said Wedge, who managed Bedard two years ago in Seattle. "If the guy says he doesn't want to stay in the game, what are you going to do? You take him out of the game. Bo did it the right way. If the guy says he's done, you can't leave him in there and put him in a position to fail. He didn't have a choice."